


Blood as sweet as cherry wine

by HopeSilverheart



Series: Loving Em at 2AM [18]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Artist Clary Fray, BAMF Isabelle Lightwood, BAMF Lydia Branwell, Crimes & Criminals, Cuddling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Girls in Love, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt Isabelle Lightwood, Hurt/Comfort, Isabelle & Lydia Work for a Criminal Organisation, Kisses, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24653680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeSilverheart/pseuds/HopeSilverheart
Summary: “What on earth is going on here?”Lydia and Isabelle exchanged a panicked glance, their eyes flickering between the guns on the floor and the blood pooling from Isabelle’s arm. Any hope of getting rid of the evidence before their girlfriend could find it disappeared when Clary took a step closer to them and gasped.Or: Clary finds out about Lydia and Isabelle's night jobs.
Relationships: Lydia Branwell/Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood
Series: Loving Em at 2AM [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764400
Comments: 5
Kudos: 59





	Blood as sweet as cherry wine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



> title is from jasmine thompson's 'cherry wine' (also yes, i have given up on titles)

“What on earth is going on here?”

Lydia and Isabelle exchanged a panicked glance, their eyes flickering between the guns on the floor and the blood pooling from Isabelle’s arm. Any hope of getting rid of the evidence before their girlfriend could find it disappeared when Clary took a step closer to them and gasped.

Lydia winced at the redhead’s shocked face. They had done everything in their power to keep their second jobs a secret from their girlfriend, but she wasn’t stupid. One look at those guns and she had probably made the link between them and the late night trips Lydia and Isabelle went on alone.

“This is-” Izzy started, only to cut herself off when Clary crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at them menacingly.

Clary was one of the most non-threatening people Lydia had ever met, but she had a way of getting to others that the blonde had never been able to explain. It was like she had a superpower that allowed her to make people tell the truth. A single glance, a snap of her fingers, and Lydia would tell her everything. Maybe it was because she loved Clary, or maybe the girl was truly _that_ good. Either way, Lydia knew Izzy wouldn’t be able to deny anything.

She gave her two more seconds to break and spill the beans.

“I was shot,” the brunette blurted out. Lydia rolled her eyes at her, because _really_? That was all she had to say about the blood and the weapons and the clear guilt in their gazes. “It’s nothing too bad, just a surface wound, and Lydia will have it stitched up in no time!”

Clary stared at both of them, unimpressed. Lydia could see how tight her knuckles were and knew that, behind all her bravado, their girlfriend was confused and terrified. Anger was the only way for her to let it out without appearing weak, and Lydia could understand that.

She had done it plenty of times before.

“We didn’t want to get you involved in this mess,” Lydia explained softly, gesturing at the guns next to them. She pointedly didn’t mention the knives hidden in her boots or the whip Isabelle kept as a bracelet. “Izzy and I are… We have a bit of a second life, a dangerous one, and we didn’t want to see you get hurt because of it. I know you’re probably a bit scared for – and _of_ – us right now, but I promise we’re still the girlfriends you know and love. We just also happen to have guns and shoot bad guys in our spare time.”

“Right,” Clary snorted. “A completely normal hobby; nothing to be scared of at all. You know, I believed you when you told me you went to see Isabelle’s brother at night, but now I’m wondering if you even have a brother at all. It’s not like either of you have ever introduced me to your family. Now I’m beginning to see why.”

“Clary…” Izzy sighed, hissing in pain as Lydia started bandaging her wound up. “It’s not like that. Alec really _does_ exist, but he’s part of all this and I didn’t want you to figure things out before you were ready.”

It was a terrible way of phrasing it and Izzy knew it. Keeping their secret had been a conscious choice at first, because neither of them wanted to scare away the bright and joyful artist who had wormed her way into their hearts. After that, it had been about keeping Clary safe. Knowing about the Lightwood business would have only put their girlfriend in danger.

After a while, though, they just… hadn’t known how to talk about it. They both knew they couldn’t hide forever, but there didn’t seem to be a good way to tell their girlfriend that they were both criminals.

In hindsight, it would have been better to talk about it and get through a bit of awkwardness and discomfort than to have her find out because of an injury. Really, Lydia wasn’t sure there was a worse way to find out.

She looked up at Clary and swore under her breath at the murderous look in the redhead’s eyes. Their girlfriend was one of the happiest and kindest people in the world, but even she didn’t have endless patience or forgiveness. Maybe they had crossed a bit of a line with their secret.

“Honey, I swear we wanted to tell you,” she murmured, her gaze _begging_ their girlfriend to understand. “We just didn’t know how to tell you. What were we supposed to say? ‘Oh hey Clary, by the way, Izzy and I are highly-ranked criminals in an Underground Organisation?’ That would have gone over well, don’t you think?”

“It would have certainly beat _this_ ,” Clary snarled. “Why did you guys even come here to take care of the wound? If this is such a big secret, why stop by my apartment rather than yours, huh?”

“Because we feel safe here!”

Isabelle’s words echoed in the studio, loud and clear and more than a little broken. Sometimes Lydia forgot that Izzy was so much newer at this than she was. Alec had trained his sister well, but even she had her limits. She wasn’t as hardened as Lydia was, no matter how strong she made herself out to be.

Lydia hated this situation with a burning passion, but she had learned to deal with the unexpected and make the best out of it. Izzy, however, was still new enough that she couldn’t stand not having things under control. Yes, she liked bending the rules and deviating from the plan, but only when she was the one to decide. _This_ wasn’t something Izzy could control, and Lydia could tell it was tearing at the brunette’s insides.

“Princess,” she whispered, reaching for Izzy’s cheek and turning her head until they were looking at each other rather than Clary. “Hey, there you are. Breathe for me, Izzy. I know this isn’t how we wanted things to go, but it’ll be alright. You’ll always have me, princess, no matter what happens here tonight.”

“Oh for God’s-” Clary exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “I’m not going to break up with you!”

As one, Lydia and Izzy turned to look at her, incredulous looks in their eyes. It had always been a given in their minds that, as soon as Clary found out about their little night time adventures, she would leave them. It was one of the reasons why they hadn’t been willing to tell her about it.

“You’re not?” Lydia frowned. “But I mean… Why not?”

“Because, and this might shock you to hear, I love you!” Clary burst out. “You may be idiots who should have told me about your potentially deadly jobs months ago, but this information doesn’t change anything for me. Well, it means I’m probably going to have to learn how to defend myself, but nothing else.”

“But you’re angry at us,” Izzy pointed out, shooting Lydia a grateful look as she finished bandaging up her arm. “We lied to you, we’ve been going behind your back to kill people – or at least seriously injure them – and we got blood all over your carpet.”

“I _am_ angry at you,” Clary sighed heavily, coming to kneel in front of the sofa on which they were sitting. “I thought we’d resolved our communication issues a while ago but now I find out that you’ve still been hiding things from me. We’re going to have to talk a lot and figure things out and I have hundreds of questions ready to be asked, but none of that is enough to get rid of me. As for the blood on the carpet, well… I’m sure you have your methods, right? And if not, you can always buy me a new one with all the money you’ve undoubtedly accumu-”

The redhead cut herself off, her eyes widening comically as she looked between her girlfriends and their expensive clothes and jewellery. She was clearly starting to make the connection between their criminal work and their wealth.

“Oh my god,” she groaned, burying her head in her hands. “I’m such an idiot. Here I was, thinking the two of you just came for rich families when really, you’ve been buying me things with money procured illegally. All those expensive gifts, were they all bought thanks to… you know?”

“Surprisingly enough, no,” Lydia chuckled. “I mean, that’s where most of our money comes from, yes, but we’re also from incredibly rich families in the first place. Although really, since our parents are the ones who introduced us to the family business, there’s a chance that all their money is a _bit_ dirty.”

“But even then, we actually used our day job pay checks to buy you things,” Izzy shrugged. “Although I suppose it’s the same thing at the end of the day.”

“Right,” Clary said slowly. “Well, we’re going to have a lot to talk about this week-end. For now, though-”

“You want us to leave,” Lydia finished for her, already getting up to gather their belongings.

They had expected to have more time to get presentable and hide their guns before Clary came home, but they had overestimated themselves. Now, they would just have to get back to their own apartment across the city. It wasn’t ideal, but it beat having to go to Alec for help.

Their boss _hated_ getting interrupted during his personal time. His husband hated it even more. As uncomfortable as the taxi ride would be, at least they wouldn’t have to deal with two grouchy men all night long.

“What? No, Lydia, what on earth are you doing?” Clary blurted out, ripping Lydia’s coat out of her hands and pushing her back onto the couch. “I’m not kicking you guys out, for heaven’s sake!”

“But you just said…” the blonde started, looking at Izzy for guidance but only getting a confused shrug in response. Clearly, the brunette was as bemused as she was over Clary’s reaction.

“I said that we’d talk about everything later, yes,” Clary completed for her. “Because right now, we all need cuddles, hot chocolate, and a lot of rest. Isabelle was just shot, Lydia! I’m not cruel enough to make her sit there and talk about her job whilst she’s in pain. You go make the drinks, I’m going to get us settled into bed. You really need to stop assuming I’m going to react badly to every single one of your demons. I’m here to stay guys, or at least until you realise I don’t deserve you and kick me out of your lives.”

Lydia scoffed as she walked towards the kitchen, hearing Izzy echo her and start ranting about how wonderful Clary was and how _they_ were the ones who didn’t deserve her. Frankly, Lydia sometimes wondered if she deserved either of her girlfriends, but she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. If they wanted to be with her, she wasn’t going to protest.

She prepared the hot chocolate as fast as possible, eager to settle in between her two loves and let their soft voices soothe her and lull her to sleep. After the day she’d just had, she was tense and all too ready to sink into the land of dreams. Her girlfriends were probably in similar states, which meant the cuddling wouldn’t last too long.

Usually, she would complain about that, but she was much too tired to grumble about a short snuggling session.

By the time she joined her girlfriends in the bedroom, Clary and Izzy were already half asleep. Clary was carding her fingers through the brunette’s hair, her lips moving in a way that told Lydia she was probably whispering sweet nothings into Izzy’s ear. Izzy was already mostly out of it, clearly more exhausted than she had let on earlier.

For all that she acted like she was tough enough to take bullets without flinching, Izzy was still as human as Lydia and Clary.

“She’s going to complain about not having gotten her hot chocolate tomorrow morning,” Lydia chuckled as she settled in between her girlfriends and handed a mug to Clary, putting the other one down on Izzy’s bedside table before sipping at her own spiked drink.

Clary was eyeing her hot chocolate as though she knew _exactly_ what Lydia had done, but she – thankfully – didn’t say anything about it. After her long day and night of work, Lydia thought a bit of alcohol was the least she deserved.

“I’m really sorry about all the lying,” she said after a few seconds of silence, glancing at Clary through her eyelashes. “I know we already said it, and I know you’re going to forgive us all too fast, but I am. You didn’t deserve to find out like this, with Izzy bleeding in your living room and our guns nearby. Hell, we promised ourselves we’d never have our weapons out around you, and now look at us…”

“You can apologise twenty times if it’s what you need to do,” Clary sighed, grabbing Lydia’s mug, and setting it down along with her own. Instead of going back to caressing Izzy’s hair, she took one of Lydia’s hands and started rubbing soothing circles onto the back of it. “But you’re right. I’ve already forgiven you. I knew you were hiding something from me and deliberately didn’t push. Besides, I think a part of you knew exactly what you were doing when you decided to come here tonight. Would you have come to my apartment if you didn’t want me to find out about your secret?”

“Well… No,” Lydia admitted. “I wasn’t lying when I said that we wanted to tell you. I suppose our brains decided they’d had enough and took us here on auto-pilot.”

“Sounds about right to me,” Clary huffed. “If only you’d worked up the courage to do this earlier, I would have stocked up on medical supplies. I’m going to do that as soon as I have the time, actually. And if you guys want to keep a gun around… I’m not going to say I’m comfortable with it, but I’d understand.”

“Absolutely not,” Lydia shook her head. “Izzy and I always have a gun on us, so you don’t have to worry about that. Until you move in with us, your apartment shall be gun-free. And blood-free, if I have anything to say about it.”

“Unfortunately, I have a feeling you don’t always plan these shootings,” Clary teased her, letting go of Lydia’s fingers and digging them into her sides. The blonde burst into giggles, trying her best to squirm away from her girlfriend’s touch without waking Izzy up.

“Fine, fine, we don’t,” she breathed out after a minute of mock-fighting. Immediately, Clary stopped tickling her and drew her in closer instead, pulling her down so they were on their sides, foreheads touching. “However, I can still try my best to keep it that way. I was serious when I said we didn’t want to put you in the middle of things. Our work isn’t exactly safe, you know? Izzy and I signed up for this, but you didn’t. So please, if we tell you to stay away from our apartment sometimes, just…”

“I’ll listen,” Clary murmured, pressing a kiss to the crown of Lydia’s head, then to the tip of her nose, and finally to her mouth. When she spoke again, her lips were still brushing against Lydia’s. “Although I’m sure my two badass girlfriends would defend me if it came down to it.”

“You bet your ass we would,” Lydia grinned mischievously.

She _dared_ someone to try hurting Clary. They’d end up dead in less than a minute.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading! This fic wasn't beta'ed so, as always, any and all mistakes are my own! I really enjoyed writing in this crime universe yesterday, so I thought I'd expand on it and give it a bit of fluff and love on top of the sexual tension (; There's already a third fic in the works, and who knows how many more I'll write whilst I'm in the mood. I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Love, Junie. 
> 
> (find me on tumblr @hopesilverheart)


End file.
